Why Airlines Will Regret The Transparent Airfares Act

Andrew Bender
, ContributorI delve into the business of business travel, and often the fun too.Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

At the end of last month, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Transparent Airfares Act of 2014, but let’s be blunt: the bill does the opposite of what the name implies, at least from the passenger point of view. If enacted, it would allow airlines to quote airfares excluding taxes and fees, which in some cases can come to nearly 50 percent of the ticket cost. Where’s the transparency in that?

The airline industry has been pushing the bill for a while now, and I get why: When tickets cost more, airlines sell fewer of them. And the airlines don’t want to look like the bad guys raising fares, when all they’re doing is passing along government-imposed taxes and fees. "An already overtaxed public hopes [Congress will] rise to the occasion and say, for all of us, enough is enough," said Nicholas Calio, CEO of Airlines for America, the industry trade group.